Established in 1859, the ‘ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum’ is an art museum in Aarhus (Jutland, Denmark), the oldest public art museum in Denmark outside Copenhagen. On 7 April 2004, ‘ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum’ opened in a brand new modern building, 10 stories tall with a total floor area of 20,700 m² designed by Danish architects ‘Schmidt Hammer Lassen‘. Today, ARoS is one of the largest art museums in Northern Europe: here you can read the 2022 annual report. Apart from the large galleries with both permanent and changing exhibitions, the ARoS building features an arts shop, a dining café and a restaurant.
On 6 January 2009, ‘ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum’ celebrated its 150-year anniversary with a jubilee exhibition, displaying the same works as the very first exhibition in 1859, amongst others. The architectural vision of the museum was completed in 2011, with the addition of the circular skywalk ‘Your rainbow panorama‘ by Ólafur Elíasson on the roof of the museum. The installation has helped boost the museum’s attendance, making it the second most visited museum in Denmark, just behind the well-known Louisiana Museum in Humlebæk. This circular skywalk has windows in the colors of the rainbow thereby showing the panorama of Aarhus in different colors depending on the location of the viewer. The installation cost DKK million 60 ($10.7 million)z and was sponsored by the Realdania foundation. It was inaugurated on May 28, 2011
In the fall of 2014, ARoS announced plans for an expansion project titled “The Next Level”. It includes “The Dome”, a new big underground gallery and art installation, designed by American artist James Turrell. Although postponed several times, its construction finally began in 2022, and it is now scheduled for completion in 2025. Budgeted at kr 57 million, it also includes a reconstruction of the surrounding Concert Hall Park.
The name ARoS refers to the Old Danish name of the city Aarhus, Áros, while the capitalized letters of the name hint at the Latin word for art, namely ars.
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